Newly bought computers and Windows restore CDs.

[Roasted]

Are they still packaging newly bought computers with restore CDs? Or are they doing the partition thing?

Reason I ask is I just realized that my new Toshiba laptop came with restore CDs. I completely forgot that for a while they were doing the partitioned hard drive recovery bullshat. Are they still doing that or did they sway back over to CDs?

[LinuxIsInnovation]

HP does not provide recovery disks but the partition thingy.

[darksong]

I got the restore cd/s with my Toshiba laptop - the reason why i went for the laptop over a compaq one :)

[stalker145]

I got the restore cd/s with my Toshiba laptop - the reason why i went for the laptop over a compaq one :)

Yeaahhh. I bought my wife a Compaq a while back and was disturbed to find no CD. They are kind enough to provide one, though, for $37 + S/H... ugh

[dim_hyder]

Dells seem to come with restore CDs.

Acer laptops restore partions

Lenovo desktops / laptops restore partitions

Just my experience

[marx2k]

Yeaahhh. I bought my wife a Compaq a while back and was disturbed to find no CD. They are kind enough to provide one, though, for $37 + S/H... ugh

ahahaha WHAT?!?!

[marx2k]

I flew into NY on vacation for the holidays to see my folks. Their Windows got jacked with viruses (no surprise) - I tried as hard as I could to remove them but they were all in DLL files and 3 different virus removal programs couldnt repair them so I had to remove the DLLs and of course, windows did not function after that. But before I shut down to never-boot-again-land, I was able to access the restore partition on the Gateway computer and it reinstalled Windows (of course with every piece of bundleware under the sun).

So it did save my parent's ***. Of course, last year I also installed Ubuntu on there which they've been using for 6 months since they got the virus and of course that hasn''t given them any problems. But now they've got Gutsy and XP on the machine and I slapped another gig of RAM in there.

Then I reliazed that my parents are RUssian and I could run Ubuntu in Russian so I did that. Then they wanted me to get Windows running in Russian too (they love AOL... god knows why) - but of course, you have to pay Microsoft for a new copy of Windows localized to whatever country (in this case Russia) to get it to run in another language.

So basically, that's how I converted (or, Ubuntu itself converted) them over to Linux. The only time my mom boots into Windows now is to print up some recipes on her Lexmark printer. I hope she gets a Linux compatible printer soon :(

[Aiello]

My HP didn't come with restore CDs, but they are sending some to me free of charge.

[Bachstelze]

Yeaahhh. I bought my wife a Compaq a while back and was disturbed to find no CD. They are kind enough to provide one, though, for $37 + S/H... ugh

Why do you need one ? A Windows CD is not exactly the hardest thing to find on the Interweb, and you can download the drivers from HP's wobsite...

My Asus laptop came with recovery CDs but I never use them. I just install a plain Win XP and install all the drivers afterwards.

[darksong]

Why do you need one ? A Windows CD is not exactly the hardest thing to find on the Interweb, and you can download the drivers from HP's wobsite...

My Asus laptop came with recovery CDs but I never use them. I just
install a plain Win XP and install all the drivers afterwards.

Cause the ones you normally download from the internet are either only available in US English or loaded with viruses. :D

[HermanAB]

"Lexmark"

I haven't encountered a Lexmark printer that doesn't work with Linux. Maybe you should just try a little harder to install it.

[init1]

Yeaahhh. I bought my wife a Compaq a while back and was disturbed to find no CD. They are kind enough to provide one, though, for $37 + S/H... ugh
I got a notice in the box to my Compaq laptop that there was a recovery partition and that I could make disks from an option in the start menu. Well, I ended up erasing both my Windows and recovery partition at once and never got around to making the disks.

[stalker145]

"Lexmark"

I haven't encountered a Lexmark printer that doesn't work with Linux. Maybe you should just try a little harder to install it.

If you can figure out the X5470, please drop me a line. I've seen many threads where people have given up and lexmark has personally told me to pound sand (not in those words, though ;) )

Why do you need one ? A Windows CD is not exactly the hardest thing to find on the Interweb, and you can download the drivers from HP's wobsite...

My Asus laptop came with recovery CDs but I never use them. I just install a plain Win XP and install all the drivers afterwards.

(Emphasis Mine)

As I don't have XP, my wife hates 2000, and she would probably leave me to be with Vista, I think I could use the recovery/install CD's in the event that anything would happen to the computer.

Kinda funny, too, that a staff member would be alluding to the illegal downloading of copyrighted material...

[Griff]

I don't think anyone mentioned it so I'll go ahead and say it. They don't ship recovery cds anymore because XP/Vista will generate them for you. And since most people wouldn't even know how to use them (or lose them) it makes sense. When I got my new hp laptop the first thing I did was make my recovery dvds (I ended up needing 2). I got a recovery partition too but I let my linux partition absorb that up.

[erfahren]

most brand name PCs come both with a "recovery partition" and the ability to burn off a set of CDs or DVDs and so usually can either restore the Windows from either using the CDs/DVDs or booting into the recovery partition.

The CDs/DVDs that are burned oftentimes have the same content as any would have that would be included with the PC.

I get adamant about this because I sometimes (when I'm bored) answer questions on Yahoo!Answers and everytime someone mentions not having the Windows CDs included when they bought the computer are inevitably told (by a few people) that they're basically screwed and should have got the CDs when they bought the PC.

They are then told to purchase the Cds from the manufacturer, buy a copy from M$, borrow a friends', or dwnload it from warez or bittorrent or whatever.

I feel like yelling: "doesn't anyone read the ******* manual that's sitting right off the Start Menu that says to burn off a set?" (actually, I think a lot of PC's prompt you to the first time they're booted up.)

Even if they're not burned right away they still can be pretty much whenever.

Edit: GRIFF must've posted while I was typing out mine. .. that's basically all I'm saying too!

[zetetic]

Cause the ones you normally download from the internet are either only available in US English or loaded with viruses. :D

So, what's the problem?

Even Microsoft has already admitted Vista is nothing more than a huge virus (see what they have said about the Windows automatic updates made without users' permission).